Mastercard establishes its ninth innovation laboratory

10 October 2017

Mastercard eyes further expansion in the innovation territory by establishing a new innovation laboratory in India. This is the first research lab in India aimed at joining forces with the players of Indian financial industry to develop innovative technologies for improving digital payment landscape, achieving important milestones in data manipulation, financial inclusion and security.

It is the ninth lab of Mastercard opened across the globe and the second in Asia Pacific region after Singapore. The innovation lab to be located in Pune will function as a hub for exploring new technologies and as point of support for startup ventures on the basis of Mastercard Start Path scheme.

Mastercard Start Path is an international effort of the company to provide assistance to later stage companies, viewed as the drivers of the future of commerce. The program targets a diverse range of companies “from FinTech to Retail to Security to Big Data and beyond” to help businesses worldwide to come to their goals and succeed.

The establishment of Indian lab adds to a series of other initiatives launched in the country, including a project implemented in cooperation with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Visa. The project focused on developing Bharat QR, an integrated payment system allowing merchants to display only one QR code instead of multiple codes. The push is a part of the Indian policy to reduce the national heavy reliance on cash and transit to electronic payments.